Wesley’s Cesarean Birth

Mom had a comfortable long birthing time, but some different issues necessitated a cesarean. Hypnobabies was still very helpful despite the change in plans.

I hadn’t taken the time to write up my birth story until just
recently, partly because my birth detoured from what I had planned
and I needed some time to grieve the birth that I had worked so hard
for but wasn’t able to have, so I’ll caution my fellow Hypnomommas
to read with your BOP.

I’ll start by saying that my experience with Hypnobabies was
wonderful and a true gift to myself and my child. I believe in
Hypnobabies so much that it is my goal to become a Hypnobabies doula
and eventually to teach.

I chose to birth with a midwife who is part of a OB practice in a
hospital. On Wednesday, April 2nd, my birthday, I was at work and
remember, after leaving a meeting, having the distinct feeling that
I should be at home. My birthing time had not begun (although I was
five days past my guess date at this point) and I wasn’t feeling any
pressure waves but I just had this feeling and I remembered hearing
in our HB classes and in the discussions from the Yahoo Group how
important it is to listen to your body, so I did just that and went
home. On Thursday, April 3rd, I was feeling the same so I called
into work. I did venture out for my scheduled chiropractic
appointment and that evening is when I finally felt something
begin. We started keeping track of my pressure waves but they were
very irregular and so we called it a night and began again the next
day. It was the same story that Friday. I was having waves but
they weren’t regular and didn’t feel like they were doing much.
Jeff, my husband, went ahead to work and I spent the day relaxing
and in Center. I had been in Center since Thursday afternoon,
recalling that it is a good idea to begin using your hypnosis
early. (As a side note, I have to say that I think this is one of
the two reasons that Hypnobabies worked so well for me. This and
remembering to choose to use my hypnosis.) It wasn’t until that
evening, when Jeff arrived back home, that things finally began
kicking into gear and my pressure waves became regular. In
hindsight, I think I was asking my body to wait until he got home
and then once he did I opened up and gave myself permission to go
ahead with the birth.

Things continued into the night and Jeff called Kathy, our doula,
and asked her to head our way. She arrived at our house around 2:00
am. I was comfortable through each of my pressure waves and found
that my favorite place to be was on the toilet, funny enough. I
continued to progress at home until about 3:00 am when we decided to
head to the hospital. We got checked in and per our birth plan Jeff
handled most of the questions while Kathy set up the room, dimmed
the lights, and posted the Hypnobabies sign on our door. When they
checked me to see what my progress was, we learned that I was
between 5-6 cm. I was so ecstatic! I couldn’t believe that I had
progressed this far at home.

Over the next four hours I changed positions, several times,
utilized the bathtub in my room, which was great, walked the halls,
hydrated myself and snacked. When they checked me again, at 7:30
am, I was at 9 cm, which was great. This is where my story begins
to detour. An hour later they checked me again but my cervix was
swollen a bit on one side. The midwife recommended that my bag of
waters be broken and that I move around for awhile to see if we
could bring Wesley’s head down more evenly on the cervix and help me
finish dilating and effacing. Kathy took the lead here and had me
pacing the halls, doing the belly lift, bouncing on the birth ball,
etc. They checked me again about an hour later and unfortunately my
cervix wasn’t thinning out but was swelling more. We decided to try
Pitocin to regulate my pressure waves and to see if the baby would
come down more. I was on Pitocin for a couple of hours and when
they checked me again the news wasn’t good. Instead of thinning
out, my cervix was continuing to swell and was getting worse. They
weren’t sure why but at this point I had been at 9 cm for 8 hours.
Their recommended a c-section. This is where my beautiful birth
plan got thrown out. Although we really didn’t want a c-section we
decided to go ahead for our safety.

Wesley Aiden was born at 4:02 pm on Saturday, April 5th, 2008. He
weighed 7 lb. 1.45 oz. and was 21.5 inches long (although in the
birthing room, which is what my wonderful midwife called the OR, he
was mistakenly measured at 23 inches. What a long baby that would
have been!) :)

In reflection, I am still so happy with my Hypnobabies experience
and really feel that it gave me all the tools to have a p*** free
birth. I was able to make it all the way to 9 cm with no need and
no wish for any pain medication, before having to allow for a change
of plans. I’m still so proud of my accomplishment, although
saddened that the birth didn’t quite turn out the way I had
envisioned. However, in the end, the only p*** I ever felt was when
the nurse was putting in the hep-loc (which she was having
difficulty doing) and when the anesthesiologist was putting in the
epidural, neither of those having anything to do with the natural
birth process! And best of all I have my wonderful, healthy son.
Thankfully he was only exposed to the epidural for at most 20
minutes, as the epi was placed minutes before the c-section. Beyond
that, I had a wonderful and complication-free recovery that I truly
believe was facilitated by my ability to stay clam, focused, relaxed
and at peace, allowing my body not only to progress through the
birth but to also continue it’s natural healing power after the c-
section. All this because of Hypnobabies! My mother-in-law still
talks about how great I looked after the birth. She says that I
didn’t look like I’d been giving birth at all. :)

I hope that my story will be an encouragement to all of you
wonderful moms who choose to educate yourselves and insist on being
an integral part of your births!